Emotion Coaching is an approach designed to help young children understand their emotions and learn how to manage their feelings. These skills are important for children’s personal, social and emotional development, including self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.. Supporting development of these skills may mean children are more likely to do better later in school.
The programme is designed for children across the early years and is delivered through everyday interactions by the early years educators who work with them. The EEF evaluated the programme with 3 – 4‑year-old children in school-based and Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) settings.
It helps practitioners build warm, responsive relationships with children and uses a four-stage approach:
- Recognising emotions
- Validating emotions
- Setting expectations
- Problem-solving
Through this approach, adults support children to manage their emotions in the moment (co-regulation), helping them gradually develop the skills to manage them more independently over time (self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.).
This programme was developed by Emotion Coaching UK.
The EEF commissioned an efficacy trial of Emotion Coaching (EC) in 2024. The trial found a small positive impact on children’s self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances., based on practitioner reports, for children in EC settings compared to children in control settings.
A small positive impact on self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. was also found for children in EC settings who were eligible for the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) compared to EYPP children in control settings. The effect was larger for this group than for the overall sample.
The trial also found a small positive effect on children’s prosocial behaviourActions and behaviours that aim to help others., based on practitioner reports, for children in EC settings compared with children in control settings.
These results have a three-padlock security rating, meaning we have moderate confidence that the impact was due to the programme itself rather than other factors.
The programme had a moderate positive effect on practitioners’ understanding of emotions and their confidence in supporting children’s emotional development. Practitioners reported increased awareness of both their own emotions and those of the children they worked with. They also commonly reported improvements in children’s ability to recognise and label emotions and a greater willingness to seek support from adults when needed.
- The Emotion Coaching efficacy trial involved 3,330 3 – 4‑year-old children across 153 early years settings.
- The programme was evaluated in school-based and PVI settings across England.
- 20.7% of children within the trial were eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium. This is higher than the national average.
Practitioners use a four-step Emotion Coaching framework during everyday interactions with children. The approach involves recognising and validating children’s feelings, setting appropriate behavioural expectations where needed, and supporting children to solve problems. The four steps are:
- Step 1 – Recognising the child’s feelings and empathising with them.
- Step 2 – Validating and labelling the feelings.
- Step 3 – Setting expectations of behaviour (if needed).
- Step 4 – Problem solving with the child.
The approach is designed to help practitioners build warm, responsive relationships with children and become more aware of the emotions children experience. Through co-regulation, practitioners support children to manage their emotions in the moment, helping them to gradually develop the skills to regulate their emotions more independently over time.
To support implementation, at least two practitioners from each setting, including a member of the senior leadership team, attend two days of online training followed by three fortnightly two-hour online workshops. Practitioners receive programme resources and guidance to support implementation and ongoing reflection on their practice.
The programme uses a cascading model, with trained practitioners encouraged to share their learning and resources with colleagues across the setting. This is intended to support consistent use of Emotion Coaching by all staff working with 3 – 4‑year-old children.
The evaluation found that Emotion Coaching was delivered largely as intended and was generally well received by setting leaders and practitioners, including those who received the training indirectly through colleagues. The approach of cascading training within settings varied but was generally viewed positively as a way to support wider implementation.
The average cost of Emotion Coaching was around £418.30 per setting and £16.70 per child per year, when averaged over three years, making it a very low-cost programme.
This is an estimate of holistic setting costs to implement the programme at the time of the evaluation. Settings will need to check the current cost of the programme through the Emotion Coaching UK website.
Emotion Coaching is available nationally to professionals working with children across the early years, although the EEF evaluation was conducted only with children aged 3 – 4 years within school-based and PVI settings. The training model operates on a cascading approach whereby settings identify at least two staff members interested in leading Emotion Coaching. Those staff members (one of which needs to be a senior member of staff) attend a two-day online core training course, followed by three online practice and implementation workshops. Trained staff then share the approach with colleagues, supporting adoption and implementation of Emotion Coaching across the setting.
Training is delivered during term time, with one early years emotion coaching course offered each term.
Settings can find more information on the Emotion Coaching UK website.